thai dumpling soup

In keeping with my theme of asian-inspired dishes, this is becoming another KC household staple. Adapted from a version, I saw Bill Grainger make on the BBC’s Saturday Morning Kitchen, this soup is easy to make, and is a nice change to the chicken noodle/tomato/lentil soups that seem to dominate the winter months. I took a lot of liberties with the original recipe because of what I had on hand, but it came out wonderfully (even better than the first time I made it staying true to the original recipe).

Lesson learned: there’s a lot of flexibility with this recipe. Switch out the herbs that you use in the dumplings, use green curry instead of red, lemongrass added to the both might be really nice. Have fun with it!

Directions1. Place the ground pork, ginger, chili, chives, 2 teaspoons of the fish sauce and corn flour in a large bowl.
2. Using clean hands, mix all until well combined.
3. Wet your hands and roll the mixture into small balls (wetting your hands helps in the molding process). Set aside.
4. Place the red curry paste in a large saucepan and cook stirring over a medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until fragrant.
5. While the curry is heating, put rice noodles in a bowl and cover with near boiling water. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before draining.
5. Add chicken stock, coconut milk, kaffir lime and sliced ginger. Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce the heat to low, add the dumplings and simmer gently for 5-7 minutes or until just cooked through. Note: I always worry that this doesn’t give it enough time to cook, but it does!
7. Add remaining fish sauce, lime juice and sugar to taste.
8. Add drained rice noodles and remove from heat. Ladle into serving bowls and serve immediately with garnish (coriander, parsley, chives, whatever), extra kaffir lime and/or chopped chilies.